Saturday, March 27, 2010

Indian tourism experts have recently predicted that medical tourism in India is going to experience a major boom in the current year. More than a million medical tourists are expected to visit our Indian subcontinent by 2010 and to make the most out of this huge influx, both the hospitality sector and medical sector are gearing up fast. The Fortune Park Hotels recently ventured into the Indian medical tourism segment by inaugurating its new hotel wing - Fortune Park Lake City hotel in Thane, Maharashtra. The Jupiter Lifeline Hospitals own this property which boasts of 58 rooms as of now. 32 more rooms are in the making, which are expected to open up for guests by the end of 2010.

Fortune Park in collaboration with the Jupiter Lifeline Hospitals is looking forward to bring up a similar medical tourism project in Vizag in a couple of years. Plans are to create a 50-60 room hotel with a 250 bedded hospital. A sum of 150 crore rupees has been estimated to be required to complete this project. Medical tourism in India is already on the lines of scoring big because of its cost efficiency factors. In India, medical treatments cost about a fifth of what it is in the US. Majority of the travellers visiting India for medical treatments are from the West and South East Asian countries. This is followed by UK, US, Tanzania and Switzerland.

Research further predicts that a surge in influx of medical tourists in India will be majorly influenced by the availability of quality medical services at lower costs. Another study conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industry and McKinsey consulting firm showed that the Indian medical tourism industry has a potential to rise up to $2 billion from $1 billion by 2012. Seeing such promise in the India health tourism business in the near future, the Wockhardt Hospitals group is planning to open 4 super specialty hospitals in a three years line. Way to go India!!